A Peacekeeper in Africa: Learning from UN Interventions in Other People’s Wars (A Project of the International Peace Institute)

Product Description

Alan Doss offers a rare window into the real world of UN peacekeeping missions in Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Doss’s story is one of presidents and prelates, warlords and warriors, heroes and villains, achievements and disappointments―and innocent people caught in the midst of deadly violence. As he shares his front-line experiences, he reflects on the reasons for successes and failures and on the qualities that leaders need to successfully guide efforts to rebuild peace and prosperity in devastated societies. Not least, he also considers the UN’s future role in conflict prevention and peacekeeping in a climate of increasing resistance to intervention in “other people’s wars.”

CONTENTS:

Foreword―Terje Rød-Larsen.
A Journey in Peacekeeping.
THINGS FALL APART: WEST AFRICAN WARS.
Sierra Leone: The Search for Peace.
Côte d’Ivoire: The War of Succession.
Liberia: From War to Peace.
WARS WITHOUT WINNERS: PEACEKEEPING IN THE CONGO.
Into the Cauldron: Congo Past and Present.
Crisis Without End: The Kivu Wars.
The Contagion of Conflict: Other Places, Other Wars.
Pursuing Peace: Stabilization, Peacebuilding, and Transition.
OUT OF THE SHADOWS: THE PROMISE OF PEACE.
Great Expectations: Intervention and Its Conceits.
Pipe Dreams and Possibilities: Navigating Pathways to Peace.
MOVING FORWARD: PEACEKEEPING TODAY AND TOMORROW.
A Job Like No Other: Leading Peacekeeping Missions.
Facing the Future: Actions for Peace.

Review

This book is first-rate…. Alan Doss provides a thoughtful, engaging account of the UN’s work in African conflict zones, told from a unique vantage point; he also asks the reader to grapple with a series of difficult strategic questions, which the last chapters address head-on. The pages meld remarkable experience with a keen analytic mind and great sensitivity. They take us on a journey through Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, and the DRC, as well as through a rethinking of the UN’s important work in some of the world’s most difficult situations. (Jennifer Widner, Princeton University)

An absorbing and incisive study of peacekeeping at the coalface, offering the reader a detailed and highly readable insider’s account of the realities of UN field operations during and in the aftermath of civil war…. This is precisely the kind of book needed to bring out the limitations as well as the possibilities of UN peacekeeping. Highly recommended. (Mats Berdal, King’s College London)

Superb … both readable and insightful. Alan Doss served at the highest levels of peacekeeping in [Africa], and this book richly draws learning from that experience. A must read for policymakers, scholars, or the just curious seeking to understand the success and setbacks of UN peacekeeping … over the last twenty years and what its future might be. (Alex Vines, Chatham House)

Whoever convinced Alan Doss to write this book has done justice not only to him but to history. It is a brilliant piece of work.  (Zainab Bangura, Former Foreign Minister, Sierra Leone)

Heading a United Nations peace operation is one of the hardest jobs in the world, requiring a unique mix of diplomatic, managerial and advocacy skills. Alan Doss was among the best. . . . His book should be of great interest to anyone who wants to understand what it takes to end wars in these turbulent times through the eyes of someone who was at the center of the storm. (Ian Johnstone, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University)

With this book Alan Doss has reinvigorated the debate about peacekeeping…. He draws on his decades-long experience in the field to offer a compelling, engaging and insightful account of both possibilities and pitfalls. (Zeinab Badawi, host of BBC’s History of Africa series)

Alan Doss is a development professional who brought the perspective of a nation builder to the peacekeeping task. Alan understood that the only viable exit from modern peacekeeping is building viable